From Lisbon to Oporto: An Arc of Portuguese Architecture

$3,750 pp dbl; $4,350 single occupancy

June 17 – 24, 2013, RDA members will embark on a seven-day visit to Portugal. The tour begins in Lisbon, Portugal’s resplendent capital by the Taugus River, and concludes in Oporto, the country’s second metropolis along another great river: the fertile and aromatic Douro. Portugal and Spain recovered their democracies almost simultaneously after enduring long and hard dictatorships. Since then the country’s architecture has flourished under the benefits and perils brought on by this newfound freedom as well as by joining the European Union. The result is an architecture admired the world over for its poetic rigor and exquisite materiality.

The tour will include visits to key works by the country’s two Pritzker Prize laureates, Alvaro Siza (1992) and Eduardo Souto de Moura (2011), as well as works by other notable Portuguese architects such as Joao Carrilho da Graca (RDA’s 1994 lecture series participant), Aires Mateus, and Gonzalo Byrne. Highlights during our stay in Lisbon will cover such remarkable works as the Portuguese Expo Pavilion and the Chiado reconstructions by Siza; the astonishing Jeronimos Monastery in Belem; a visit to the mythical castle of San Jorge with Carrilho da Graca who restored the grounds to heighten the castle’s layered history while providing new panoramic views of Lisbon; and a meandering walk through the Alfama and Chiado neighborhoods accompanied by the esteemed Lisbon architect about town Gonzalo Byrne.

We will travel northward by train to Oporto, Siza and Souto de Moura’s hometown, marvelous city of intricate tiled buildings, multiple shades of porto wine, and striking baroque buildings. Among the buildings that we will visit are Siza’s masterful Serralves Foundation Museum, the Boa Nova Tea House, the architect’s first major work in Matosinhos, individual works by Souto de Moura, the magnificent baroque church of Los Clerigos, and the Casa da Musica designed by Rem Koolhaas/OMA, an inspired addition to an already rich legacy of singular buildings in the city. Our tour concludes with a one day trip to Santiago de Compostela to visit Siza’s masterwork: the Galician Center of Contemporary Art with a prolonged pause at the city’s incomparable cathedral and the experience of its innumerable granite streets and portals.

Rice Architecture professor Carlos Jimenez, along with local architects and personalities will serve as guides.